One city, one standard

Now that the governor and legislative leaders have agreed on a profligate state budget for 2009-2010, they're apparently prepared to revisit the issue of a budgetary rescue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The governor and the Assembly had agreed in principle on an MTA bailout similar to that proposed by a special state commission, but the state Senate balked. The sticking point was a proposal to put a nominal, $2 toll on the East and Harlem river bridges. Even that modest proposal met with howls of outrage and a cadre of lawmakers was able to hold the compromise hostage.

When the bailout stalled, the MTA board last week passed a "doomsday" budget with massive toll and fare hikes. The public and media backlash was so ferocious, however, that frightened legislative leaders vowed to put together a new MTA rescue package to and save commuters from the extreme price increases.

Maybe, but we'd bet dollars to doughnuts that it hasn't softened the opposition to imposing tolls on the free bridges.

That's unfortunate. Why should cars be allowed to drive into traffic-plagued Manhattan for free while people who do the right thing and take mass transit have to pay tolls to cross those same bridges? It makes no public-policy sense for a city that has struggled to comply with federal air-quality regulations.

Yet some stubborn lawmakers are prepared to let those mass transit riders pay much higher fares -- and let the MTA impose a $13 base toll on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge -- in order to keep the bridges over the East River and Harlem River toll-free.

"Apparently [the $2 toll on the free bridges] was politically difficult, yet somehow $13 was acceptable," said Jonathan Peters, a finance professor and transportation expert at the College of Staten Island. His research shows that toll collection on cars from Staten Island ZIP codes adds up to a whopping $65 million annually -- and that could go up substantially. But drivers in other boroughs get around for free. What about sharing the toll and fare burden?

The arguments put forth in defense of the anti-toll position are nonsensical -- and outrageous to Staten Island residents. Some insist that residents of the city have a "right" to drive from one part of the city to another for free. Staten Islanders have never had any such right. In fact, the toll on the bridge that connects them to the city is the highest around, by far. And people who take subways and buses into Manhattan have to pay a fare. Why should some drivers be exempt?

The defenders of this absurdity have even stooped to saying that the free bridges serve to "unite" the city.

Really? Then, by that logic, there should be no tolls on any bridges or tunnels that connect the boroughs, including the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Nor should there be any fares for subway and bus riders either.

Allen Cappelli, the borough's representative to the MTA board, has some thoughts along these lines. He argues that, as long as public officials are looking at this whole pricing thing for tolls, they should determine to make it a fair system -- one that doesn't penalize some parts of the city for the sake of catering to others.

"It ought to be one city and one standard," he said. "Either we shouldn't have to pay, or everybody else should have to pay."

State Sen. Andrew Lanza agrees, saying: "As a Staten Islander, I say go ahead [and impose the $2 toll]. If you're going to toll our bridge, toll their bridges so we can pay less on the Verrazano Bridge."

Of course, that's a tough sell politically in the other outer boroughs and near suburbs. But it is the right conversation to have at long last. Now that public and media attention is focused on the toll issue, we urge our state and city officials and all Staten Islanders to make the same kind of noise about this that opponents of tolls on the free bridges have made.

It's time this outrageous toll inequity got the attention it deserves.